straightforwardly (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
straightforwardly) wrote2017-12-17 02:09 pm
straightforwardly) wrote2017-12-17 02:09 pm
174 | various video games, and some fic recs
► My older brother got Uncharted: The Lost Legacy for his birthday earlier this month, and I was intrigued enough by what I saw (mostly, Chloe and Nadine chatting with one another, and the glorious nature and ruins) that I decided to give it a shot myself, despite never having been interested in any of the Uncharted games before. I started last night.
I didn’t have a PSN profile, so I had to do that first, and was Very Put Out when I found out that the usual username I use for gaming and real-life-adjacent stuff had already been taken. And a lot of my alternative ideas were all one or two characters too long for the character limit. But I finally found something I could be satisfied with.
My brother, who has already 100% completed this game, was watching me play / telling me where to go next / basically being my human walkthrough. He was also uncertain about how to take my calling him a human walkthrough.
So far, I’ve: gotten through a city section that I Couldn’t Care Less About, though I have to admit that they did a good job creating a convincing city environment, driven off of multiple cliffs (for fun), failed multiple times at driving up a muddy hill, got very distressed by Chloe’s treatment of historical sites, got very upset about losing a silencer pistol on a muddy slope before I could even use it (seriously, still distressed about this), crashed the car into the tallest tower and jumped out of it in such a way that certain people irl thought that the car might actually drive over Chloe, climbed the tallest tower, did yoga on top of the tallest tower, jumped off the tallest tower, and did a puzzle involving fountains like ten times before I actually managed to complete it within the time limit.
Not too crazy about the combat (I’m never been fond of shooters), but otherwise, I’m having fun with it.
► I also played Epistory: Typing Chronicles before this, but I don’t have too much to say about it? I enjoyed it, though I will say that the walking controls were absolutely t e r r i b l e. Which wouldn’t have been a big deal if there hadn’t been timed puzzles which involved getting to particular locations at a particular time.
But the game itself was very pretty, involved a fox (!!!), and I loved how the story was told and how the world unfolded. And somehow, even though the ending involved one of my most hated narrative tropes, it was handled lightly enough that I didn’t really feel upset about it? I still don’t precisely like it, but it was vague enough that I could figure out ways to interpret it that sit better with me.
► A few recs from my brief ventures in the The Borgias fandom:
As for the “we get dark, only to shine” rec, I do have some caveats—there’s a subplot in the Rome arc which doesn’t work for me for various reasons, and it makes that section drag a bit for me—but otherwise it’s really enjoyable, filled with brilliant scenes and characterization, and pretty much a godsend in a fandom that seems to be surprisingly low on good fic.
What this fandom isn’t low on are gifsets and pretty image edits. I’m not a very visual person in general, so it doesn’t really make up for the lack of fic, but there’s still a lot of stuff I really liked there.Now, if only I could figure out the best way of reblogging all of the 30+ pages of stuff I have in my likes without flooding other people with all of the incest…
► In other news, someone on my flist linked to this adorable argument in favor of Rottweilers, and yes, yes, yes. ♥
I didn’t have a PSN profile, so I had to do that first, and was Very Put Out when I found out that the usual username I use for gaming and real-life-adjacent stuff had already been taken. And a lot of my alternative ideas were all one or two characters too long for the character limit. But I finally found something I could be satisfied with.
My brother, who has already 100% completed this game, was watching me play / telling me where to go next / basically being my human walkthrough. He was also uncertain about how to take my calling him a human walkthrough.
So far, I’ve: gotten through a city section that I Couldn’t Care Less About, though I have to admit that they did a good job creating a convincing city environment, driven off of multiple cliffs (for fun), failed multiple times at driving up a muddy hill, got very distressed by Chloe’s treatment of historical sites, got very upset about losing a silencer pistol on a muddy slope before I could even use it (seriously, still distressed about this), crashed the car into the tallest tower and jumped out of it in such a way that certain people irl thought that the car might actually drive over Chloe, climbed the tallest tower, did yoga on top of the tallest tower, jumped off the tallest tower, and did a puzzle involving fountains like ten times before I actually managed to complete it within the time limit.
Not too crazy about the combat (I’m never been fond of shooters), but otherwise, I’m having fun with it.
► I also played Epistory: Typing Chronicles before this, but I don’t have too much to say about it? I enjoyed it, though I will say that the walking controls were absolutely t e r r i b l e. Which wouldn’t have been a big deal if there hadn’t been timed puzzles which involved getting to particular locations at a particular time.
But the game itself was very pretty, involved a fox (!!!), and I loved how the story was told and how the world unfolded. And somehow, even though the ending involved one of my most hated narrative tropes, it was handled lightly enough that I didn’t really feel upset about it? I still don’t precisely like it, but it was vague enough that I could figure out ways to interpret it that sit better with me.
► A few recs from my brief ventures in the The Borgias fandom:
Even In Another Time (Cesare/Lucrezia, 7K)The time-travel fic was actually the first one I read in this fandom, long before I even watched the show, and was in fact one of the factors that finally tipped me over into actually watching it. ♥
Against all reason, it almost makes her laugh. Has today truly started? If this is a dream, it feels real. And yet she cannot conceive that this is truly happening. Are her brother's promises so grave, so vast, that she has been returned to —
To the last time in her life that she could have called herself bloodless and clean?
we get dark, only to shine (Cesare/Lucrezia, 168K - WIP)
Cesare visits Lucrezia in Pesaro and the two of them start plotting against Sforza, growing closer by the day.
something holy (Cesare/Lucrezia, 6.9K)
Lucrezia noticed him then, turning her head to fix him with a small smile pressing wickedly into her full, white cheek. “Dear brother,” she said, tilting her head, reaching out a hand. “Why do you lurk in the doorway? Why do you not come to me?”
Not so innocent, underneath it all, Cesare thought, and went to her as bade, catching her fingers in his. So delicate they were in his grip. She’d always been small in his arms: something to be protected and cherished.
“Sister,” he greeted, lifting her hand to his lips and letting himself linger with his mouth against her skin, inhaling that familiar scent.
Post-series.
As for the “we get dark, only to shine” rec, I do have some caveats—there’s a subplot in the Rome arc which doesn’t work for me for various reasons, and it makes that section drag a bit for me—but otherwise it’s really enjoyable, filled with brilliant scenes and characterization, and pretty much a godsend in a fandom that seems to be surprisingly low on good fic.
What this fandom isn’t low on are gifsets and pretty image edits. I’m not a very visual person in general, so it doesn’t really make up for the lack of fic, but there’s still a lot of stuff I really liked there.
► In other news, someone on my flist linked to this adorable argument in favor of Rottweilers, and yes, yes, yes. ♥